Today we are excited to introduce the most prolific social media user out there JD Rucker aka @0boy
**To join us please sign in here -> Twchat.com/hashtag/vcbuzz
About JD
JD is a writer, a social media strategist, and an executive for a firm that offers complete internet marketing solutions. He is one of the social media pioneers who introduced many people (including the founders of ViralContentBuzz) to the social media world. For many years he has been our mentor! But more about JD from our Tuesday Twitter chat qa.
Questions we are going to discuss
Intro: Who the heck is JD Rucker? Why don’t you start by telling people a little bit about who you are and why people should listen to you?
People should never listen to me. If you check my Twitter & Facebook, you’ll see that I say pretty weird things. I stay immersed in the worlds of social & search from the moment I wake until my wife reminds me to eat, so I guess from that perspective I might be able to bring some value to the digital marketing conversation.
+1 for that… I often even forget to put the light on in my office ? RT @0boy: … until my wife reminds me to eat, so… #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) February 11, 2014
Q 1: I know you used to be a power user on Digg.com back in the day (Before digg.com went to hell in a handbasket). What are you doing these days to replace the social action you used to get from Digg.com. Have you found a replacement or social platform to fill the void?
Digg was training. It was like in Batman Begins when he went to some mountain jail to “train” to fight bad guys. We all had to learn to play within an algorithm and communicate with people virtually in order to push a message. In a way, many of us owe @digg a lot of thanks because what emerged from its ashes were some strong marketers. Today, that translates into better understanding of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and even the social news sites like Buzzfeed and Reddit. Digg taught us to combine science (algorithm) and art (communicating with people). Today is all Facebook. Twitter is getting there (finally). Google+ will get there (eventually). Pinterest – maybe. It goes without saying, but Facebook is the venue for true reach on social media today. I miss Digg.
@0boy Or you can just say funny things on Facebook and make people laugh like JD does! ? #vcbuzz
— Gerald Weber (@the_gman) February 11, 2014
Q2: Tell us in a few words how auto dealers or other small businesses can harness the power of social and content marketing to improve their brands and ultimately increase their bottom line?
Facebook is Ideal for small business, whether we’re talking car dealers, restaurants, of florists. It’s “home” for many people when they’re on their smartphones, watching TV, at their desk, everywhere. Facebook is “our” web. It’s our personalized virtual portal into people’s lives. As a result, small businesses can benefit from it, because they’re in entertainment mode, just like watching TV, but with interaction. By getting into the feed small businesses are able to be seen. From there, the content marketing aspect comes into play. Being seen is not enough. Now, you have to actually say something. You have to tell a story and it better resonate.
Q3: Do you believe link building for rankings are dead?
Most components of traditional link building are dead. Today, it’s all about “link earning”. Google wants people to link to sites naturally. That’s not realistic for small businesses, but through true Content Marketing small businesses are able to make an impact. Today’s link building is a matter of quality over quantity.
@0boy In a nutshell… quality trumps quantity every time! ? #vcbuzz
— Gerald Weber (@the_gman) February 11, 2014
Q4: What is your firm currently doing to improve organic rankings for clients? Content. Link earning. Social signals. Technical SEO. All of the influenced components of Google’s algo fall into one of those categories. In all four cases, it’s a quality play once again. You don’t just need more content. You need better content. You don’t just need more links. You need strong links. Social signals will head in that direction as well, some day soon. Don’t get me started on the butchering of the technical side of SEO. One more botched microformat I see might be enough to send me over the edge.
Q5: How important is Social to SEO? For example to you feel some business can just ignore social if they are rankings well and already generating business from SERPs? Or is social a must for every business? Businesses cannot ignore social media. Businesses CANNOT ignore social media. It’s not just about SERPs. It’s reputation. It’s customer service. It’s public relations. It’s interaction. From a search perspective, social plays a major role despite what @MattCutts might say. I totally understand that they don’t want social signal spamming, but it’s too clearly important to dismiss. Google looks at sentiment and the viral nature of content. They use social media to judge websites and companies. If businesses would stop trying to get social shares and focus on making content that’s sharable, they’ll win. Content marketing for the sake of bringing value to visitors is the key to both SEO and social media in 2014 and beyond.
@viralcontentbuz Thank you guys for having me. This is such an awesome venue for these types of things. You guys #rock! #vcbuzz
— JD Rucker (@0boy) February 11, 2014
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